


I Would Be Lying If I Said, I Could Live This Life Without You

by SereneCalamity



Series: Give In To Him [4]
Category: Stranger Things (TV 2016)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - Roommates/Housemates, Although I guess it's kind of major in this one, Bisexual Steve Harrington, Boys Kissing, Drunk Talking, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Explicit Sexual Content, F/M, Gay Billy Hargrove, Loss of Parent(s), M/M, Minor Character Death, Recreational Drug Use, Returning To Hawkins
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-21
Updated: 2019-09-04
Packaged: 2020-05-15 19:20:53
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 5
Words: 23,149
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19302169
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SereneCalamity/pseuds/SereneCalamity
Summary: It had been over five years since Billy had been back to Hawkins, Indiana. He knew for a fact that he wouldn't be able to be there if Steve wasn't with him.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Sorry about the longer delay before putting this up! But this is gonna be a bit of a longer one!  
> But then I saw the trailer today and I quickly raced through and finished this up.  
> Keep in mind, not edited yet - I'll get to it at some point!  
> Disclaimer: I do not own characters or the title, which comes from In Case You Didn't Know by Brett Young.

Steve Harrington woke up to the sound of banging—maybe a door slamming shut. He blinked, feeling drowsy, and part of him  _guessed_  that it had to be morning, because Billy Hargrove hating getting up early even more than Steve did, but it had to be him moving around the apartment. And yet the other part of Steve was pretty sure that it wasn't morning, because it didn't feel as though he had been asleep that long. Steve closed his eyes, rolling over to face the wall and wondering if maybe Billy had just accidentally hit his door as he was leaving his room to go to the bathroom in the middle of the night, and he was beginning to go to sleep again when his phone started vibrating.

And it wasn't the short vibrate either, like a text or a notification for Snapchat or Twitter, it was long, and constant, because someone was ringing.

Steve frowned, rubbing a hand over his face and reached up to the window sill above his head where his phone was laying, following the cord of his charger, and he gripped his phone, wincing at the photo of Lucas Sinclair brightly shining at him, pulling a face. He swiped his thumb over the screen and lifted the phone to his ear.

"Lucas?" Steve croaked.

"Steve!" Lucas' voice was loud in his ear, even though it probably wasn't all that much louder than his usual volume, it was just because it was breaking through the quiet room, and when Steve pulled his phone away from his ear and looked at the time, he saw that it was just before two in the morning.

"Lucas, what's wrong?" Steve asked, already sitting up. It was a Wednesday morning, so it would be incredibly unusual for the kids to be out drinking, and they didn't usually go out and not  _be prepared_  about what was happening afterwards. "Are you okay?" Suddenly, the light went on outside Steve's room, flooding inside since his door was only partially closed, and Steve tugged the cord out of his phone, letting the charger drop and swinging his legs over the side of the bed, onto the wooden floors.

"It's Mr Hargrove," Lucas replied, voice dropping lower, and in the background, Steve could hear moving around and someone talking in hushed tones. "He's dead—he died in a car crash. Max got a call from her mum—she just rung Billy and he hung up on her. Max is back on the phone with her mum now, but I thought that maybe you should check on Billy." Steve was already walking toward the door of his room.

"Thanks, Lucas," his words were clipped, but he was pretty sure Lucas would understand. "I'll talk to you later." He hung up without saying anything else, holding his phone in his hand as he stepped out into the small hallway. It was the light in the lounge that was on, and Steve stepped into the bright room, blinking a few more times for his eyes to adjust from the darkness of his room, but he still didn't see Billy. He took a few more steps, until he could look into the kitchen, and then he saw Billy, a bottle of whiskey in his hand, lid on the bench next to him, his whole body shaking. "Billy?" Steve said quietly, because he really wasn't sure what he was meant to say. He took a step closer, into the darker lounge, fingers curled tightly around his phone and the other into a fist. "What can I do, sweetheart?" There was another shudder that ripped through Billy, his shoulders rolling, and Steve chewed down on his bottom lip.

Steve didn't know all that much about Neil Hargrove, Billy didn't talk much about  _either_  of his parents. Everyone in Hawkins knew that Neil was an asshole drunk, and a lot of the kids in Billy's grade at school knew that he got used as a punching bag, even if he tried to hide it, and there had been this one time that Steve had been making out with Macey Louis behind a diner, and he had seen Neil slap Billy right across the face in the back of the parking lot. Macey had been horrified and Steve had wanted to call the police straight away, but then Billy's eyes had found his. It had been one of the  _only_  civil exchange between them in high school. Billy's eyes had met Steve's and while they were wide and furious and scared, he managed to get the message across with a small shake of his head before his attention was shifted back to his father.

But Billy didn't go back to Hawkins.

As far as Steve knew, he never had been, since he had left after graduating.

Not for birthdays, Thanksgiving, Christmas—he never went back.

Then there was a crash, as Billy smashed the bottle of whiskey into the sink. The bottle was half full, so there was liquid splashing up, getting on the bench and the widow sill in front of the sink and probably on Billy as well, but other than jolting in surprise at the sound, he didn't move or make a sound, waiting Billy out.

And finally, he turned around, and crashed into Steve, nearly sending him tumbling over, and he wasn't crying, but he couldn't stop shaking, and Steve just wrapped his arms around him and held onto him tightly.

* * *

Steve rung both of their works in the morning. It was Stephanie Anders that he got when he called into his own job, and she was sympathetic and said that she would put through annual leave for him that day. Steve hadn't even thought of that, honestly, because it wasn't as though money was an issue for him, there was a deposit that appeared in his bank account once a month that was about four times the amount he got at his job, but he thanked her and hung up. The man he got at Billy's work was Billy's boss, and he had sounded gruff, but he always did. He had said to pass on his best to Billy, and not to come back until he felt he was ready, so Steve took that as the man being as sympathetic as he could be.

Billy's phone had been ringing since Steve woke up, and Steve had watched as Max's name had come up, then Susan Hargrove's, then Max's again, then Lucas', and then Max again. They had gone into Steve's room last night, after Steve had found him in the kitchen, and Billy had taken a long time to fall asleep, tossing and turning and keeping Steve awake as well. He was still asleep now, and so the next time his phone rang, Steve swiped his finger over the phone and left the room again, like he had to make the walls to their works, and answered Billy's phone.

"Max," Steve stated.

"Steve," Max didn't sound too surprised that it was Steve picking up the phone. "Is...Is Billy okay?" Max and Billy had had a pretty contentious relationship when they had been younger, but it had gotten better since Billy had left Hawkins, since he had gotten away from Neil, really, and started healing. They weren't as in touch with each others feelings as Jonathan and Will Byers, they sort of had that more sarcastic, playful vibe that happened between Nancy and Mike Wheeler, and that worked well for them.

"He's sleeping," Steve replied and Max let out a heavy sigh.

"Okay, that's fine," she mumbled.

"Are you okay, Max?" Steve asked quietly as he walked into the kitchen and looked at the broken glass in the sink, and the stickiness on the bench and wall and window sill from the splashed whiskey.

"Yeah, I guess..." Max sighed. "I hated Neil. I always hated Neil, but not as much as Billy did. I think he liked me, but only...I don't know, maybe because I  _wasn't_  Billy—or maybe he just acted like that because of my mum, I don't know." Steve sighed as well, because he hated that two people he loved had to grow up with this man in their lives, and now they had to deal with loosing him, and the mess that was to follow that.

"Where are you now?" Steve asked as he walked into their lounge and looked around for newspaper. He picked up some old papers that were piled up next to the door, probably getting ready to be thrown out, and he carried them back into the kitchen.

"We're about to get on a plane to Indiana," Max told him. "This was my last call before we board."

"Lucas going with you?" Steve checked.

"Yeah, he's got the rest of the week off, so he can stay for a bit...Help to figure some things out," Max sounded a bit distracted and then she sighed. "Okay, I've got to go. I'll call in a couple of hours. Can you...Can you have Billy answer?" Her voice sounded small, which made Steve's heart hurt, because Max was such a little fire ball—it was like her and Billy were actually related by blood at times.

"I'll try, okay?" He said and Max hummed in reply and then the call ended. Lucas was with her, and Steve was happy about it. They had been dancing around each other for a while now, and then there had been a night about two months ago when they had been at a bar and it was clear that the two of them were going home together, so it seemed as though it was only upward from there. Billy acted as though he didn't like the fact that they were getting together—or maybe that they already were together—because he didn't like the idea of his step sister being with any guy, but Steve knew that Billy was glad that it was Lucas, because the kid had been head over heels for Max since they were fourteen. If there was anyone to be by her side at a time like this, Lucas would be the best one.

Steve started cleaning up the mess in the kitchen, shifting all of the glass onto the open newspaper that he had spread out on the bench, and then wiping down the benches. He put some music on, his phone connecting to the speakers, playing something by Theory of a Deadman. He kept on cleaning, even after all the whiskey and glass was gone, just in his boxers, not sure what to do with himself when Billy was hurting in his bed and there was nothing that he could do to fix it.

It was always  _Steve_  with problems.

Steve on anti-depressants, Steve on anti-anxiety medication, Steve on sleeping tablets...Steve with the problems with diet pills and throwing up after he ate and who was scared of the dark and the silence and who sometimes hated his body so much that he got tattoo's and piercings to try and change the way he looked.

And Billy always looked after him, even when they were good friends, even before he knew the extent of what was wrong, and Steve had no idea what he was supposed to do.

Steve didn't even realize how much time had gone by, as he was on his knees and pulling the cords out from behind their TV and the cabinet that it was resting on, so that he could wipe down the the cords and the walls and the back of the cabinet with a wet cloth to get rid of the dust, and then Billy's phone was ringing again. Steve's own phone was in the kitchen still, but he was carrying Billy's phone around, waiting for Max's call. He'd let two more of Susan's go to voicemail, because he didn't want her voice to be the first one he heard after waking up, but when he saw Max's face come up, he saw the time at the top, and he realized that he had been cleaning for over four hours.

That would explain why his knees hurt from crawling on the floor and the sheen of sweat on his face and back.

"Hold on," Steve said by way of answer as he walked toward his bedroom, pushing open the door and then approaching the bed. Billy was still facing the wall, and his shoulders were lifting and falling rhythmically, showing that he was still asleep. He felt a bad, because Billy had taken so long to go to sleep, but this was important. Steve laid a gentle hand on Billy's shoulder, squeezing just a little and shaking. "Billy," he whispered. "Billy, it's Max." Billy grumbled under his breath, indicating that he was waking up.

"I don't wanna talk," he replied with a huff, voice sounding scratchy, shrugging his shoulder to try and knock Steve's hand off. Steve took in a deep breath and rubbed his hand over his face before reaching over again, and this time, he shook Billy' s arm, more firmly this time.

"Billy," he repeated, his voice as stern as he could muster. "It's Max." Billy didn't move for a moment, or say anything, before he rolled over and held out his hand for the phone. Steve passed it over and then left the room, so that the siblings could talk. He closed his door behind him so that they had privacy and then went into the bathroom, turning on the shower and looking down at his knees. They were an angry red, and he made a face at the little indents on them, before moving over to the sink and brushing his teeth. After getting a towel from the cupboard, he stepped into the shower, and let the water rush down over him, soothing the aches in his shoulders from where he had been scrubbing at the bottom of their fridge.

He heard the bathroom door open and waited for Billy to pull back the shower curtain, but he didn't. Steve kept on waiting, trying to make out Billy's form through the curtain, but it was foggy from the shower, and he could just see Billy walking to the toilet and sitting down on the closed lid.

"The funeral is going to be Saturday morning," Billy stated, his voice sounding hollow, and Steve swallowed hard.

"Do you want to go?" He asked carefully.

" _Fuck no_ ," Billy snapped, the hollowness now gone and replaced with venom. Steve swallowed hard again, dipping his hair under the water and letting it was away the lemon and apple shampoo suds from his hair.

"Are you sure?" Steve asked, because while he knew that Neil was an asshole—even if he didn't know all the details—he was still Billy's  _dad_. Steve wasn't close with either of his parents, but he would still go to their funerals. He knew it wasn't the same thing, but...It was still important. Steve reached out and turned off the shower, standing there in the tub, under the shower head for a few moments before pushing back the curtain and reaching for his towel. Billy leaned forward and pulled it off the rack, holding it out to Steve, and Steve gave him a small smile. Billy didn't smile back, but Steve didn't expect him to, and he dried himself off with the towel, ending with scrubbing at his hair.

"I'm fucking sure," Billy replied, getting up from the toilet seat and stepping around Steve to get to the sink. He squeezed tooth paste onto his toothbrush and turned on the tap, shoving the brush under the running water before pushing it into his mouth. Steve wrapped the towel around his middle, tying it in a knot at his hip and he stepped up behind Billy, getting into his personal space. "What time is it?" Billy asked, spitting out a mouthful of tooth paste before putting the brush back in his mouth.

"Just before two," Steve replied quietly, and he lifted a hand tentatively, resting his fingertips against Billy's back. Billy tensed for a moment, but then he let out a heavy sigh and spat out another mouthful of tooth paste and then dropped his tooth brush into the cup by the sink and braced his arms on either side of the sink. Steve let his hand trail gently up and down Billy's back, tripping over the knobs of his spine, scratching lightly with his blunt fingernails that were for once without any nail polish.

It was almost five o'clock before Billy spoke again. Steve had filled the silence with a few comments and questions that only required yes or no answers, so that Billy only needed to nod or shake his head. They were in the lounge, on the couch, and Billy's feet were on Steve's lap and they were watching  _White Gold_  when Billy lifted his head from where it was resting on a bright purple pillow that Steve had brought a while ago, and he nudged his toe against Steve's hands.

"Mm?" Steve asked, stopping his motions from rubbing the arches of Billy's feet.

"If I go, will you come with me?" He responded abruptly. Steve didn't need any clarification about where Billy meant, he just dipped his head in a nod.

"Of course," he murmured. Billy huffed out a sigh and looked back at the TV. Steve was pretty sure he wasn't really paying any attention to what was happening, there were several things that Jay from  _The Inbetweeners_  had said that Billy would usually at least snort at and he hadn't even  _breathed heavily_  in those parts. Steve went back to rubbing Billy's feet, digging his thumbs into the arches of Billy's feet, and into the heel, fingers trailing down the sides lightly.

It was an hour later that Billy stated that he would go back to Hawkins, but that there was no way in  _fucking hell_  that he could stay back in the house he had lived in with his father, Susan and Max.

"Don't worry," Steve said quietly, his hands still moving. He wasn't rubbing Billy's feet anymore, they had shifted in the past hour, Billy had shuffled around so that he was pressed against Steve's side, and one of Steve's hand was on Billy's thigh and the other was on Billy's shoulder, both hands gently stroking and massaging. "We can stay at my parents. They won't be there—I mean, I'll ring them and see, but—they won't be there. They never are."

That was another thing that they never talked about.

Steve's parents.

He was guessing that Billy had gathered a lot of things, just like Steve had about Billy, but they'd never talked about it.

"Thanks," Billy said, turning his head to look up at Steve, because even though Steve hadn't completely avoided Hawkins like the plague since he had left—like Billy had—he had only gone back a couple of times. And only once since they had lived together, which was going on three and a half years now.

"It's okay," Steve reached down and pressed a kiss against Billy's cheekbone before he was carefully standing up.

"What are you doing?" Billy asked, eyebrows pulling together and corners of his lips turning down, practically pouting at the fact that Steve was moving off the couch.

"I'm—I just need to call my parents, okay? You keep watching," he waved a hand at the TV and Billy let out a sigh through his nose, as though he didn't like the idea of being seperated from Steve. Steve didn't mind the sentiment, but he didn't want to talk to his mum in front of Billy. He didn't really like talking to his mum  _anyway_ , but Billy didn't have his mum, and from what little Steve had heard, he actually loved her, so Steve didn't want it to be a thing.

The phone rang three times before it was answered.

"Stevie darling? Stevie!" Anita Harrington cooed into the phone. When Billy called him Stevie it was sort of...Familiar and sweet. When Anita called him Stevie, it was as though she hadn't seen him since he was three and she didn't realize that he no longer wore onesies. "How are you?!" Wherever she was in the world, and whatever time it was, she was definitely tipsy.

"I'm good, mother," Steve said cordially, the way he always spoke with his parents. "Listen, I'm coming back to Hawkins for a little bit. Are you home?"

"In Hawkins? No, darling!" Anita laughed, as though the idea of being in Hawkins was hilarious, and yeah, maybe it was. They had never been there when Steve was a kid, when they  _should_  have been there, so there was even less chance of them being there now. "No, darling, we're in London! We'll be here for the rest of the month."

"Right, well, I'll talk to you soon, okay?" Steve concluded, even though he knew it would be at least another few months before they spoke again.

"Of course, darling!" Anita cried, and then the call ended and Steve sighed. He was pretty sure he had at least an hour of roaming call data on his phone, so that shouldn't charge him, making a call to London. He then tried to do the math, because he was pretty sure London time was behind them, and they were only going on six o'clock in the evening, and that would make London around two in the afternoon, if he was remembering correctly, and his mother was  _definitely_  not just on her first round of afternoon beverages. Steve grabbed his laptop, from where it was on the ground, half underneath his bed, and then walked back out to the lounge. Billy had stretched out on the couch now, his head resting on the cushions that Steve had been leaning back on before.

"They're in London for the rest of the month," Steve announced, and Billy lifted his head, shuffling back a little bit so that Steve could sit back down, and Billy leaned back down. One of Steve's hands went to Billy's curls, while the other hand balanced his laptop on the arm of the couch and turned the laptop on, waiting for it to power up. Billy's blonde curls were getting longer again, it had been a while since he had had a hair cut, and Steve loved it when it was like this, the waves more pronounced, around Billy's neck. He scratched his fingers lightly over Billy's neck as he searched for flights.

"Whatchya doing?" Billy mumbled, half his mouth pressed against Steve's leg.

"Booking flights," Steve replied. It didn't matter that it was last minute and so the prices were going to be higher. It was all going on his credit card, anyway, his was paid every month by his father, even though he hardly touched it. He wondered if Billy was going to try and deter him from buying them, but he didn't say anything, so Steve took that as Billy's acceptance of what he was doing. Steve found two flights that were leaving the next morning, and he easily tapped through the website, using his saved credit card details to pay for the flights, and then put his laptop back on the ground, turning his full attention back to Billy. "Are you hungry?" Steve murmured.

"No," Billy grunted, his voice muffled against Steve's leg. Steve stroked his fingers through Billy's curls, untangling a knot at the base of Billy's neck.

"Do you want anything to drink?" He offered.

"No," Billy repeated. Steve nodded, feeling useless, not knowing what else he could do. Billy turned his head in Steve's lap, looking up at Steve, and the brunette looked down at him, his heart heavy in his chest. "Thank you," he whispered, and Steve's eyebrows pulled together.

"For what?" He asked, barely able to keep back a snort. "I literally don't know what to do." Billy just gave him a small, watery smile and turned his head back to face the TV, and Steve's fingers kept pulling through his hair, not really watching what was happening on the screen, just pressing against one another.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Alright, next ones up! Obviously it hasn't been edited yet. Sorry, my dudes.

Billy seemed to have his emotions more in check the next day. They had slept in the same bed the night before—in Steve's, because he had a King Double while Billy just had a Double—and he seemed to sleep through the whole night, even though he had slept through most of the day. They had packed up their bags before going to bed, since the flight that they were catching left at seven in the morning, so they would have to get up just after five and make sure they left their place by six, and they still had to call their bosses to give them an update on what was happening. When they got up the next morning, Billy groaned about having to get up earlier than usual, and it all felt so normal, and Steve guessed that Billy wanted to act as though it was, so he just played along.

"We'll just take an uber," Billy said as he tapped away on his phone. "There's no fucking way I'm leaving my baby in airport parking, she'll get scratched or dented by other assholes who don't know how to drive." Steve nodded, not offering to pay for the uber since he was already paying for the flights and he knew that Billy letting him do that was already a big move. Steve had also booked a car for the next couple of days and it was going to be waiting for them at the Nashville airport when they got in, but he hadn't told Billy that yet.

Maybe Billy thought that Steve had organised for Lucas to pick them up, or even El Hopper, but Steve would deal with that once they got there.

Both of their bosses were understanding when they called in, repeating the same sort of things that they had said to Steve yesterday when he had spoken with them, saying they were sorry for the loss and to take what time they needed. Steve saw the appreciation on Billy's face when he was talking to his own boss—an older man who had taken Billy under his wing when he had come back to California when he was nineteen and who acted more like a father than Neil ever had—and he had squeezed Billy's hand before taking their breakfast dishes into the kitchen and quickly washing them out.

The uber took them to the airport, and Billy rolled his eyes when he realized that the tickets were first class, but he really shouldn't have been surprised. Then they were boarding and getting comfortable, and Billy fell asleep promptly, one heavy hand resting on Steve's thigh as the plane took off.

The easy smile that Billy had on his face that morning, though, was gone when they landed in Nashville. Steve hated when Billy woke up and looked outside and saw where they were, saw that they were close to landing and only a couple of hours away from Hawkins, and he felt Billy's whole body tense up beside him. Billy's fingers curled into Steve's thigh almost painfully but Steve didn't say anything, just took in a deep breath as one of the air hostesses came down the aisle and announced that they were about to begin their descent, and to put their trays in the upright position and fasten their seat belts. They landed and filed off the plane, got their luggage and then started walking through the airport toward the front.

"Shit, wait," Billy suddenly stopped and Steve turned his head and slowed. "Is Max picking us up or something?"

"No, I, uh—hired a car," Steve replied and Billy looked at him for a long moment, people making disgruntled sounds as they had to move around the two men who were standing right in the middle of floor, not even off to the side a little bit. Then, Billy nodded, and Steve was glad, because in his head, it really wasn't all that big of a deal, hiring a car with the credit card that he didn't even have to pay for. They got outside and then had to walk toward the parking garage, and the car was waiting for them where the confirmation email had told him it would be. It wasn't anything flash, nothing like Billy's baby back in the city, just a simple silver Mazda because Steve knew that Billy wouldn't be happy if he thought that Steve was spending _too much_  money, especially after the first class tickets, and the keys were in a little lock box under the boot. "Did you want to drive?" Steve asked, holding the keys out to Billy.

"Nah," Billy replied almost instantly, tossing his bag into the boot of the car and moving around to the passenger side, and Steve tried not to keel over in shock, because Billy always drove. Even when it wasn't Billy's car, he  _always_  drove.

Steve blinked and swallowed hard, biting down on his bottom lip as he moved to the drivers side and got in. Billy got into the passenger side and put on the seat belt without saying anything and then he looked through the front window with a blanket expression and it made Steve's stomach drop. Billy had seemed okay that morning, when they had been back in their apartment, and it was stupid of Steve to think that that was going to continue because  _his dad was dead_  but he really wasn't sure what to do.

"Um, there's an aux cord?" Steve said before he reversed the car out of the spot. "Do you want to put something on?" Billy looked down at the cord that Steve was offering and took it, plugging it into his phone, and then the speakers were blowing up so loudly that Steve's whole body jerked as Amon Amarth started screaming through the speakers.

Not his choice in music, but he could roll with it.

Nashville was about three hours from Hawkins. If Billy was driving, it would probably only be just over two hours, but Steve wasn't quite as scary when he was behind the wheel. About an hour into driving, the music changed, it wasn't quite as loud and the words weren't quite as indecipherable, and that was good, because Steve was pretty sure if the music played for much longer, he was going to end up with a headache. It was rock music, but he was pretty sure it was some old school, eighties rock band, and he could work with that.

And then another half hour later, Billy reached over and rested his large hand on Steve's thigh, giving it a bit of a squeeze and Steve looked over at him, ready to give him a soft smile, but Billy still wasn't looking at him.

They hadn't eaten, other than some of the food that had been brought around on the plane which really didn't do much, so Steve finally spoke after two hours in the car, suggesting they go through a drive thru somewhere to pick something up to eat. Billy had just grunted in reply, and Steve was really lost for something to say.

He knew that Billy didn't like Hawkins or his father.

He knew that he hadn't gone back to Hawkins or seen his father since he had left the day after graduation.

He  _didn't_  know what to say.

They were just waiting in line at the McDonalds drive thru when he was trying to think of something, when Billy spoke up.

"Did you bring any of your polish?" He asked, his voice sounding a little rough as he ran his thumb over one of Steve's nails, where the dark blue polish was chipped. "These need a touch up." Steve looked down at his nails and made a face.

"No...I didn't pack any," he muttered. "And I don't have any back at my house, either. I tried it on once when I was living at home, I think Nancy put it on me...It just so happened to be the only weekends that my father was home. He  _really_  did not like it, and so I never put it on again. Not until I moved away and, I dunno..." Steve shrugged. "I dunno," he repeated. "Not again until later." Billy licked his lips and tipped his head to the side and then squeezed his fingers again.

"I love your painted nails," he said quietly. "It sounds like we both lost in the dad lottery."

"I think you lost harder," Steve replied without really thinking and then he heard a snort from Billy and the smile on the blondes face actually looked genuine, so he counted it as a win.

"Yeah, I think I probably did. Neil was a fucking asshole," Billy agreed. "We should buy you some more polish once we get back to bloody Hawkins," he said, switching the subject up completely. "Get them all painted back up." The car behind them honked and Steve realized that they had been sitting there for a while and there were two free spots in front of them in the drive thru. Steve pressed his foot down gently on the accelerator and the car eased forward until they were in front of the speaker box, and they placed their order. Once they got to the window and paid—Billy insisting on covering it since Steve had gotten the car without telling him—Billy had to let go of Steve's hand, and then once they got their food and started eating while driving, it wasn't as though they could hold hands again then, which was unfortunate, because Steve's hand missed Billy's warmth.

They finished their food and shoved everything into the paper bag so that they could easily carry it to a bin once they got to Steve's parents place, and by the time that was all done, the area around them was really familiar to Steve. As in, it was somewhere he had driven on a pretty regular basis when he had been in high school, and had been getting stoned with his other basketball mates, or going out with someone to make out in his car. Then they passed the road that led to where the Byers used to live and that was pretty much it; they were in Hawkins. An old wooden sign that was so faded it was barely readable declared just a minute later down the road.

"I fucking hate this place," Billy said under his as they got closer to the township and the houses started to get closer together.

"I know," Steve said quietly, and then he reached out, resting his hand at the nape of Billy's neck, fingers gently pressing through the curls there and against his skin. Billy was tense, his shoulders were rigid and his back was ramrod straight, although the simple touch of Steve's fingertips seemed to help. Billy let out a heavy breath through his teeth and flexed his fingers on his lap, wiping his palms on his jeans. "I thought we could go straight to my parents place? Unpack first?" Billy had made it clear that there was no way he was staying in the house that he had lived in with Neil, Susan and Max when they had lived in Hawkins, and part of Steve wondered if Billy was willing to go there  _at all_ , so he wanted to leave that up to him.

"Yeah," Billy nodded, sounding a little relieved. "I guess I should text Max." He had to shift around a bit to pull his phone out of the pocket of the tight jeans he was wearing, and Steve tried to be completely focused on the road, to give Billy some sort of semblance of privacy, even though they were stuck in the car. Billy took his time, thumbs sort of floating in the air above the screen of his phone for a few minutes before he finally started tapping out a message. They reached the township, and Steve hadn't been back in about a year and a half now, and it was funny, because it was like Hawkins was forever going to be stuck in a time bubble, never changing.

The arcade, the old theatre, the ancient looking police station with its old cruisers, the  _Scoops Ahoy_  ice cream parlor where Steve had decided to get a job in his senior year because Jonathan and Nancy were both working and Joyce Byers had told him that it helped to 'build character'.

"I've only been to your place once," Billy said as they moved out of town and headed toward the nicer streets. "A party after a basketball game." Steve knew that party he was talking about, because Billy and Max only moved to the town when Steve was in his senior year, and that was when he had actually been dating Nancy and he hadn't been throwing as many parties back at his place. He tried to think back to Billy being there, and it wasn't hard, because Billy had always been very good at making himself the centre of attention at the party.

He was pretty sure Billy was the one who graduated the party from being a  _normal_  party to being a  _pool_  party, even though it had been a freezing night.

Actually, no.

Steve  _knew_  Billy had been the one to graduate the party to a pool party because he had been making out with Nancy up in his room when he had heard a splash from outside and he had run to his window to look outside and he had seen the cover of the pool half pulled back and Billy in the pool with his shirt off, skin gleaming in the outside lights that someone had obviously turned on.

It hadn't been the first time Steve had been physically attracted to Billy—and it definitely wasn't the last—even if it had meant that Steve had to spend the whole next day cleaning red solo cups and chip packets and beer bottles out of the pool.

"I remember," Steve shot Billy a crooked smile and Billy actually looked a bit surprised, but then he smiled back, and he pressed his head back, harder into the hand that Steve still had resting on his neck. Steve felt a little nostalgic as he drove through his old neighbourhood, getting closer and closer to his old home, and when he turned down the driveway, with it's perfectly mown lawn and hedges all the same height and roses pruned just right, he realized not for the first time that he was really glad that he lived nothing like this now. "I like our apartment," he said abruptly and Billy turned his head to look at him.

"Yeah?" He said with a slight smirk of his own that didn't quite reach his eyes. He was obviously feeling uneasy but didn't want to talk about it, which was about right when it came to Billy. He was always the first to bring up something when he knew that it was bothering Steve, he could pick up on it straight away and never let Steve brush it off, but he hated talking about when things were weighing on his mind. Sometimes Steve would push it, but right now, given the circumstances, he left it. "You prefer our place over this—this literal  _mansion_?" He asked as Steve's car came to a stop outside the house.

"Yup," Steve replied simply, without a second thought, because it was true. Hell, even the tiny, two-bedroomed, cluttered cabin that Chief Hopper had was more of a home than this. "This is just...It's just a place. It's not a home. Not like our apartment." Billy blinked at Steve as he took in what he had said, then he was leaning in, across the centre console and pressing his lips against Steve's firmly in a kiss. Steve's whole body melted into the kiss, especially when Billy reached out and gripped his shirt, holding him in place. When they pulled apart, Billy tilted his face up to press a kiss to Steve's nose and then settled back in his seat.

"Alright," he muttered. "Let's do this." Steve unbuckled his seat belt and got out first, letting Billy take his time, going to the boot and taking out his bag and then walking up to the front door. He still had a key for the house on his key ring, and the security alarm code was his mothers birthday, and then he was quiet as he looked around the foyer of the house.

It smelt a little musty, like no one had opened up any windows in a few days or so, which would make sense, because the cleaners only used to come by once a week when there was no one in the house, and Steve set about opening up the windows, walking into the kitchen and opening up the ones there, and then the double doors that lead out to the back yard, where the pool was.

He wondered if the pool was even still full, with only his parents living here.

He was pretty sure he had never seen either of them in there, even when he was younger and learning to swim—there'd been a few nannies who helped him with his floaties and then he had private lessons at the country club when he got a bit older.

"Uh, Stevie?" Came a voice from behind him, and he turned to see Billy looking at him. "There's a brat here." El Hopper stepped out from behind Billy, giving him a narrow look before reaching up to flick him behind the ear.

"I resent that," she grumbled and Billy just rolled his eyes at her before putting his bag on the kitchen bench and moving to open up some of the cupboards and look inside. "Hey, Steve."

"Hey, El," Steve gave her a smile, and despite the circumstances that had brought him back to his hometown, he was glad to see her, because they never got to see her enough anymore. "It's good to see you." She smiled back at him, crossing the kitchen to wrap her arms around Steve and give him a tight hug. Steve hugged her back, but he continued to watch Billy move around the kitchen.

"Hop and Joyce want you guys to come for dinner tonight," she said, and the way she phrased it left little argument.

"How'd they even know we were coming?" Billy asked.

"They just knew," El shrugged, Steve's arm still over her shoulders. Her hair was longer than it had been back in high school, when it had been curly and barely past the nape of her neck. The longer it had gotten the straighter it got, the weight pulling out the curls and turning them into soft waves. "Lucas and Max are going to be there as well. So—seven work?" She reached up to give Steve a kiss on the cheek and then pulled away, moving around the centre island, as though her question settled it all. But then she stopped by Billy, who was opening the third cupboard, and she wrapped both of her arms around him, plastering herself against his back. "I'm sorry you had to come back here," she said against Billy's back, and he stopped what he was doing, hands still resting on the cupboards doors, taking in a deep breath.

Steve watched them for a moment, before El was letting Billy going and leaving the kitchen and Billy slumped against the bench, dropping his hands to the counter top. They heard the sound of El's car leaving and Steve walked over to Billy, imitating that position El had been in, but since he was taller, he was able to hook his chin over Billy's shoulder.

"I'm sorry you had to come back here too, if that wasn't clear," he said quietly and Billy huffed.

"It's not as though he was just an asshole  _here_ , or anything," Billy murmured after a few moments, and Steve blinked, looking down at Billy's hands that were spread out on the white counter top. They were tense, and there were a couple of scars, and the fingertips were actually completely clean, which wasn't completely common for him, given how hard it was to get the oil and grease out from the grooves of his fingers after working at the garage all day. "It's not even like the  _worst_  shit happened here. It's just that...None of the good shit happened here as well, you know? At least back in Cali, my mum had been there until I was eleven, and my grandparents, and my friends...The year here was just...It was just shit." Steve tightened his arms around Billy, and then turned his head to the side and pressed a soft kiss against Billy's neck.

"I'm sorry we weren't friends in high school," he said and Billy shrugged a shoulder.

"Honestly, it's probably better that we weren't," he replied, and then he was turning around to face Steve, one hand going to Steve's hip and the other reaching up to his face. "We had a couple of run ins already, and if we were around each other more often, it might have been worse," he winced when his fingers brushed aside Steve's fringe, and touched the small scar just under his hairline. "I wasn't really in the place for  _friends_  anyway."

"Yeah, Tommy really was more like your groupie than your friend," Steve gave Billy a small smile, trying to lighten the mood and Billy gave him a smile back, but it didn't make his eyes light up like it usually did, which made Steve sad, because Billy's eyes were so pretty when they lit up.

"Tommy was a dipshit," Billy rolled his eyes. "The brains of that operation was Carol, and the last I heard, Tommy was dumb enough to let her go."

"Yeah, I saw that on Facebook," Steve shrugged a shoulder.

"I'm sorry I, like... _Stole_  them from you, or whatever," Billy made a face and Steve barked out a laugh.

"Don't even worry," he said. "My friendship with Tommy and Carol was on it's way to the pits long before you came into town. You weren't even the tipping point, just another part of the downhill journey of that part of my life," he shrugged again. Billy nodded and then took in a deep breath, that was just a  _little_  shaky at the end, as he looked around the kitchen. When his eyes landed back on Steve, there was something a bit cheeky shining in them, which Steve was glad to see.

"You ever been blown in here?" He asked. Steve tipped his head to the side as he thought, letting out a hum, remembering a fumble around with a guy who was friends with  _someone_  from their school, he honestly couldn't even remember his name, it had just been some fun after he and Nancy had broken up and he had realized that maybe he was also interested in guys.

"Once, but it wasn't any good," he replied and Billy snorted.

"Well, let's fix that. You  _know_  I'm always good," he smirked and Steve was about to smirk back, but then Billy was backing him up against the marble centre island, and his hands were both on his hips, and then Billy was easily lifting him up. "Get these off..." Billy grunted and Steve braced his hands behind him for balance, lifting his hips up so that Billy could pull his jeans and briefs down in one go, down to his knees. Steve let out a hiss when his bare ass came down on the cold marble, but then Billy's lips were forming a circle around his cock, wet and hot, and sliding down to take him almost all the way in and Steve was sufficiently distracted.

" _Fuck_!" Steve cried out, unable to stop his hips from thrusting forward to meet Billy's warm mouth, but Billy's hands went back to his hips, thumbs pressing in firm enough to leave marks, holding him still. Steve left one hand resting on the bench behind him, the other going to Billy's curls, pulling at them as his eyes rolled back as Billy's mouth worked him over. "Billy, baby— _fuck_!" He tugged at Billy's curls, attempting to roll his hips again, but Billy's hands were firm.

He loved it.

Sometimes he didn't like it when the person he was with tried to control the whole situation, because one of his boyfriends from a while ago had been like that, and it hadn't been great.

But it was different with Billy, because Billy was safe—even though the blonde would snort with laughter if he ever heard Steve describe him that way.

Billy's tongue worked over the head of Steve's cock, suckling at it for a moment before sliding all the way back down, and Steve could feel the spongy head hitting the back of Billy's throat, and Billy didn't even  _gag_  or react to the feeling, and then he was somehow opening his mouth even more, and there was warmth and spit dripping down onto his balls and Steve groaned.

"Billy, I'm gonna—baby, I'm gonna—" Billy didn't stop, he just kept on sucking, until Steve's body jerked and he was coming in Billy's mouth. The blonde kept his mouth around Steve's cock, his tongue gently licking up and down the sides, drinking back all of the come, even when Steve started shifting on the counter top from over-sensitivity, and when he deemed that he had done enough, he reached up and pressed his lips to Steve's. Steve didn't care that Billy's tongue tasted like him, he put his hands on either side of Billy's face and held him there.

Ever since this thing between them had started, they had become more affectionate and more tactile. They had already been  _super_  tactile, so really, the only way for them to start kissing and sleeping together and touching without clothes on.

It wasn't all the time, sometimes days would pass without them kissing, and Steve missed it when it didn't happen, but he didn't push it, because he didn't want Billy to feel uncomfortable or to risk putting a stop to what they had.

"You want me to help?" Steve asked, lifting one of his knees and rubbing it pointedly against Billy's thigh.

"I'm assuming you guys have at least three showers up in this place, right?" Billy asked with a smirk.

"Four, actually," he corrected Billy.

"Then let's pick the best one and you can blow me in there," Billy grinned.

* * *

Billy was nervous going around to Chief Hopper and Joyce place. He was never very good when it came to new people that were just there to be  _nice_  to him. Steve hadn't even thought about it, but on the way over, he realized that Billy hadn't actually seen either of them since leaving Hawkins—even though he spent a lot of time with their kids over the past few years, he hadn't seen them.

Plus, there was the whole part about him being arrested twice by Hopper when he had lived in Hawkins, and the fact that when he had actually given Steve the scar by breaking a dinner plate over his forehead had happened right outside the old Byers place.

But only a few minutes in, and Billy was clearly settling down.

El had dragged him into the lounge and pushed him into the couch and given him a playstation controller and they were playing  _Crash Team Racing_ , and Lucas was there as well, sitting on the ground and cheering El on, and Max was sitting on the back of the couch, cheering her step-brother on, and the whole thing made Steve breathe the easiest he had since he had picked up the phone call from Lucas. Steve split his time between the lounge and helping Joyce in the kitchen, given Hopper had ended up having to work a little bit later so she had put off cooking until Billy and Steve had arrived, and it was always nice spending time with Joyce.

She was quiet and reserved, but she saw everything, just like Will and Jonathan, and she had lost a lot, in one way or another—her husband, Will for a short while and then Bob Newby, a man she had been dating who had died in a horrible fire that had happened at work—and both her boys had felt guilty and worried when they had left home. But maybe it had been for the best, because once Will had left, that was when she and Chief Hopper had finally gotten together, and now they were engaged, and she and Hopper had found a new place together, somewhere for them to make new memories together, with their new joint family.

"How's your boy doing?" Joyce asked when Steve came back into the kitchen and put down his bottle of beer. "Can you take the pie out of the oven for me, dear?" Steve nodded, putting oven mitts on both hands before he opened the oven door and took out the glass dish. It smelt amazing, and he told Joyce so.

"He's okay, I guess," Steve shrugged a shoulder as he took off the oven mitts and put them on the bench. "I mean, I don't think they've talked in years, but...It's still his  _dad_." Joyce was straining the water from the vegetables and then moving to get plates and utensils out.

"Jonathan and Will...Their father died about four years ago," Joyce said quietly. "Will went to the funeral but Jonathan didn't." Steve knew that their father had died, and he knew that neither of them had had any contact with their father for a few years before then. Once, when they had gotten drunk, Jonathan had talked about his father, and said that his father had gambled all the money away that they had in the bank, making them late, over and over again for the mortgage payments on the house. Then when Joyce had tried to bring it up with him, trying to get him to find help, trying to remind him that they had children relying on them, he had hit her, over and over again.

Will didn't remember much of it, because of how young he was, but Jonathan did, and he swore never to see him again, after he had left the house for the last time.

He didn't resent his brother going to the funeral, and he hadn't talked to his brother about what he remembered because he didn't want to dump any of that on his brother and make him feel guilty for wanting to say goodbye to his father.

"Jonathan doesn't regret not going," Joyce said quietly. "I thought he might, I tried to tell him to go, but now...I think that he was better off not going," she shrugged. "That's how some people heal, by accepting the past, closing the lid and moving on. It's not how everyone does it, but some people do. Hopefully, for Billy...Hopefully this will help him to heal." Steve nodded and took in a deep breath through his nose. He picked up his beer and was about to go back into the lounge when he stopped, his mind flickering back to something that Joyce had said right at the beginning of the conversation.

"Wait, you—you called him  _my_  boy..." Steve trailed off at the small smile on Joyce's face and the knowing glint in her eye.

"I did," she replied simply. Steve blinked at her and his brain was trying to formulate a reply when he heard the sound of an engine outside, indicating that Hopper was home. Joyce leaned forward and squeezed Steve's arm before turning back to the plates that she had laid out. "Now, go round up the kids. Dinners ready."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> How did you guys enjoy it? Yes? Let me know, I thrive off your beautiful comments xx


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, guys, I'm so sorry about the delay in posting. My whole entire life was poured into this Harringrove oneshot that was meant to be 15k to begin with, and ended up blowing up to being over 35k, sooooo...That took over all my creative life for a while. Haha. But here's the update! And if you feel like checking out the story that took over my life, it's called I Found Love (Where It Wasn't Supposed To Be).  
> As usual, not yet edited, so apologies in advance.

Steve woke up slowly, and was disorientated as his eyes opened and he was staring down at unfamiliar blue sheets. He glanced around and spotted a bedside table made out of mahogany and then blinked a couple of times as he realized where he was—back in his childhood bedroom. He took in a deep breath as he rolled over and was met with an empty bed, and when Steve reached out and touched the bed, it was cold, so it was obvious that Billy had been up for a while. Steve rolled back over and fumbled for his phone, looking at the time and seeing that it was only just after eight in the morning, the time he was at work most days. Steve rolled out of bed, pulling his phone off the charger and picking up a shirt that was half out of one of their bags that was tossed on the floor and pulled it on before leaving the bedroom.

It was overcast outside, but Billy was still outside, by the pool, not wearing a shirt, only in a pair of sweatpants that looked a little tight over his thighs so were probably Steve's, and he was smoking. Billy smoked, still, just like Steve did, although nowhere near as much as he had back in their last year of high school and the few years after, but there were a few cigarettes stubbed out in the concrete next to him, so it looked as though he had already smoked his way through a few.

"Hey," Steve said quietly as he walked over to Billy. The air was colder here, and Steve couldn't help but shiver. He had grown up in Indiana and spent the first eighteen years of his life there, but after living in Los Angeles for the past few years, his body had adapted and he wasn't as used to the colder weather anymore.

"Come here," Billy murmured, holding out his arm and Steve walked over, sitting down next to Billy and folding his legs rather than putting them in the water like Billy was. The blonde put his arm around Steve, and Steve leaned against Billy, taking in a deep breath through his nose as he looked at the ripples on top of the water. Billy had obviously wound back the cover, and Steve was surprised that it was full. But then again, there had always been maids and gardeners, so obviously Steve's parents had decided to keep the pool full. "Want?" Billy held out the cigarette and Steve took it, propping it between his lips and taking in a deep breath. When he looked up at Billy, Billy was looking away, chewing down on the corner of his bottom lip.

"You okay?" Steve asked as he handed the cigarette back and blew the smoke out through pursed lips. Billy shrugged a shoulder as he scratched the side of his nose and took the cigarette back. "You, uh, you know what time we're going over to Max's?" Before they had left Joyce's last night, Max had asked Billy to come over and see her and Susan the following day. Billy had clenched his teeth together and it looked as though he had wanted to say no, but Steve had been surprised when he had jerked his head in a nod. They hadn't talked about it as they had driven home, or as they had shared a quick shower before getting into Steve's childhood bed, but given that it was  _today_  that they were meant to be going over, he guessed they should probably talk.

"Max sent me a few messages after she got back to the house last night," Billy replied, his tone nuetral but his fingers pressing in firmly against Steve's bicep. "Her and Susan are going to meet the funeral director at one for some final details before the funeral tomorrow, so before then." Steve chewed down on his bottom lip before speaking up, careful to keep his voice even.

"You don't want to go to the funeral home with them?" He asked.

"Nope," Billy shook his head firmly and Steve nodded. With everything that Billy had dealt with, Steve was just glad that he was closing the book on his father by coming to the funeral. He still didn't know everything that had gone on, but maybe once Billy was able to move on from that part of his life, he would open up to Steve about it, in his own time.

"You want to see if there's anything to eat here? Then head over?" Steve suggested, because he was thinking that maybe Steve needed something more in his system than just nicotine before facing the house he had spent time as a teenager, and the woman who had been married to his father for over ten years and who had stood by as he had been abused. Steve wasn't too sure what Billy's relationship with Susan was, but Billy had never really talked about her—just like he hadn't of his father or his own mother—so Steve didn't think she had done anything to help him in the time that she had spent with Billy.

"Yeah," Billy sighed, and he let his arm drop from around Steve's shoulders and pushed himself off the concrete, getting to his feet, holding out a hand to Steve. The taller man gripped it, and let Billy pull him to his feet, and then Steve was pulled even  _further_ , slightly off balance, so that Steve was pressed up against Billy's chest. "Thanks for coming back with him."

"Billy, it's  _fine_ , you already said—"

"I'm serious, Stevie," Billy pressed his lips together for a moment before lifting one hand and gently touching his fingers to Steve's forehead, brushing the fingers down the side of his face. "I wouldn't have come back if you weren't here with me." Steve really wasn't sure what to say, so he just gave Billy a soft kiss on the mouth. Billy returned the pressure, calloused fingertips still pressed against Steve's cheek. "Come on, let's go see if there's any food."

* * *

In the end, there hadn't been much food in the house, and so the two men had driven to a diner that Steve used to go to every week when he had lived in Hawkins to get something to eat. All of the wait staff were different, given that they had always been students from the school, but there was a one of the cooks in the back who recognised Steve and called out to him with a smile. Billy didn't say much, and Steve had to carry most of the conversation so that they didn't fall into awkward silence, and on the opposite side of the booth, Billy's shoulders were starting to curve inwards, as though he was trying to curl in on himself. Steve slid his foot under the table, reaching out and finding Billy's, pressing it against Billy's ankle, and Billy looked over at Steve with a small, sad smile.

"Did you...Want to tell me about your dad?" Steve asked once he had finished his waffles and pushed the sticky plate to the side, his coffee cup now in front of him and cupped in his hands.

"Not much to tell, guy was a prick," Billy replied, the smile dropping from his face instantly. Steve nodded slowly, taking a sip of his coffee, and Billy shoved the rest of his bagel into his mouth before picking up his phone and tapping away. "Okay, I told Max we're on our way. You almost done?" Steve drank the rest of his coffee a bit too fast, and his tongue burned, but he nodded and was then getting out of the booth with Billy. When they got to the rental car, Billy held out his hand and Steve tossed him keys and got into the passenger side.

He knew that Billy took the long way to the house he had lived in.

Steve had only been there a few times before—probably three times all up. He couldn't quite remember, but he was pretty sure it was around the time that he and Nancy were in the process of breaking up but still actually together, and he was helping her with taking her brothers friends home. Although, admittedly, he then carted the kids around a lot more  _after_  they had broken up, because it had turned out that he really liked the brats, but generally Max would skateboard home. Or Billy would pick her up, so Steve had only ever been out a few times when it had been dark and he didn't want her to skate home, and she couldn't organise a ride home with her brother.

So he knew that Billy pretty much circled the entire town, taking side roads and back roads, and taking nearly half an hour to get to the house, when it really should have only taken ten minutes at the most from the diner in the middle of town.

He didn't say anything, though, because he knew that it was a big step for Billy, so he just let him take his time.

When they pulled up outside the house finally, Billy took in a harsh breath through his teeth as he turned off the engine of the car and jerked the keys out of the ignition. The car went completely silent, other than Billy's deep breaths, and Steve sucked on his bottom lip as he looked over at Billy, not even moving to take off his seatbelt just yet. Billy stared at the house over the steering wheel, swallowing hard enough that Steve heard the click of the convulsion of his throat, and the brunette was chewing so hard on his bottom lip that he wouldn't have been surprised if he tasted blood. Steve looked toward the house, and honestly—it just looked like a house. There was nothing special about it, and that made things  _worse_. Because Billy was strong and brave and Steve had never really encountered anything that had thrown him.

Except his father.

Max appeared at the front door, pushing it open as she looked out at the car, and Steve noticed that she was still wearing her pyjamas. He looked back at Billy, and tipped his head to the side, hair flopping with the movement.

"Are you ready to go in?" Steve asked softly and Billy sighed heavily before nodding. Steve reached for the buckle of his belt, and then Billy was leaning in and in his space and their mouths were coming together again. Steve returned the kiss, one hand coming up to touch Billy's chest, hoping that he was providing at least half of the comfort that Billy gave to him when he was in a bad place. When Billy pulled back, he immedietly shoved open his door and got out and Steve unbuckled his belt and followed, getting out of the car and then slowly walking up to the house, a few steps behind Billy. Max stepped inside, holding the door open for them, and Billy's whole body was tense and his foot faltered as he stepped over the threshold and into the house, and Steve stopped behind him, letting him take his time.

There was an overpowering smell of flowers came from inside, and it was a tacky sort of smell, like the section of the grocery store where all the cheap bundles were, the type that Steve's mother would never allow into the house. Undoubtedly they had been seen by well-wishers, but they made Steve's nose wrinkle up as he stood at the open door.

"Billy," Max huffed a little, but she didn't look impatient, her eyes were soft, which was pretty unusual for her, especially where Billy was involved.

"Yeah, yeah," Billy muttered and he seemed to square up his shoulders and he stalked forward, into the house. Max met Steve's eyes with hers and she gave him an undecipherable look before following Billy, and Steve trailed after them, unable to stop himself from glancing around. There were some pictures on the walls—of Susan and Neil on their wedding day, of a family get together, of Max forcing a smile in a pink dress that she would never  _choose_  to put on. There were some tacky paintings on the wall as well, the kind of cheap ones that were generally found in roadside hotels, and as they got into the lounge, there was another photo on the wall. It was a bigger one, also from Susan and Neil's wedding, a family photo, and it was the first one that Billy was in.

He was in the back, hair cut short and curls non-existant, wearing a suit and a button up that was buttoned all the way up to his throat, and even in the back of the photo with two older men obscurring him a little from the view of the camera, Steve could see that Billy had a red mark on his bottom lip.

Kind of like he had a split lip.

He looked over at Billy, who was watching him and knew what he was looking at, and he wanted to say something, but then Susan was coming through the door, eyes flicking nervously between Max, Billy and Steve. Steve had never met Susan, although he had seen her a few times around Hawkins, but she looked...She looked different from what he had seen a few years ago. Even from the few photos on Max's Facebook and Instagram, although those were all taken with artful filters, and she had just lost her husband, so Steve tried not to be too critical.

But she looked unhealthily skinny, and there was a horrible pallor to her cheeks, and the clothes that she was wearing hung off her body in a way that was clearly done because she wanted to hide herself. And there was a brace on one hand and a scar on her jaw that looked reasonably new.

Billy was clearly noticing all of this as well as he looked at Susan, and Max's lips were pressed firmly together.

"Susan," Billy's voice sounded almost choked as he took step closer to the older woman. She took in a deep breath as she looked at him and Max reached out to take her mothers hand, gripping it tightly. Steve looked between the three of them, feeling as though he was intruding on a family moment, and he tried to take a subtle step back, removing himself from the situation. "Did he...Did dad..." he drifted off as his hand lifted, fingers gentle as they indicated the scar on her jaw, that was still pink and puckered. It hadn't started fading yet, or turning the shining silver, so it could only have been there for a month or two. "I'm sorry."

"You have  _nothing_  to be sorry for," Susan's voice was venomous and strong, seemingly completely out of place coming out of her frail body, and Steve was strongly reminded of Joyce. " _Nothing_." Billy's hand fell back to his side, and Max's hand seemed to tighten even more around her mothers. Steve took in a deep breath as he realized what was sinking in, and he felt tears spring to the back of eyes.

"I'm just gonna—I'm gonna get some fresh air," Steve mumbled, not able to be in this room any longer. He turned around and quickly left, stumbling into the wall and smacking his shoulder against the door frame as he walked into the hallway, straightening himself out before making it to the front door. The cool air hit his cheeks, which suddenly felt a  _lot_  warmer than they had when they had walked into the house, and before he was even really thinking, he was reaching for his wallet in his back pocket and jerking it open, going for the two little pills that he kept in the zipped pocket for times like these, when he suddenly felt overwhelmed and on the brink of an anxiety attack.

He swallowed one of the pills dry, and they could take up to twenty minutes to really start having any time of effect, but he knew it was also a bit of a psychological response when his breathing automatically started slowing down. He took a few steps down the front steps of the house before sitting down hard and resting his elbows on his knees.

He knew that Neil abused Billy.

He  _knew_  that.

Billy had never explicitly told him that, Max had never told him that, but it had been implied plenty of times and when Steve had been in high school, there had been lots of rumours that had gone around about Billy. He would come in with bruises and scrapes and he would always have this hard, brittle laugh and say that he got into fights—which people would believe because Billy did have a tendency to get into fights—but there was just this  _frequency_  at which he got the wounds that was different. He remembered Nancy had made a comment about it not long after Billy had first moved to Hawkins, when Billy had been called out of a class to see the counsellor, but Billy and Steve had never been on good terms in high school, so it had never been something that he had thought about too often.

Afterwards, once they connected as adults and struck up a friendship which had now graduated into something of a relationship, Steve had picked up on a few things about Neil and Billy's mother, but not much, and he knew it was a touchy subject, so he never pushed it. Billy had mentioned once that his mother had been gone since he was eight, and that she had been the one who had taught him how to surf, and Steve's heart had hurt that Billy had lost the one parent that cared about him. He didn't know how she had died, but he knew that it didn't take Neil long to move on to Susan, and that had been a big cause of a bitterness between Max and Billy when they were younger, because Billy hadn't been ready for a new family to be moved into the space that was carved in his heart for his mother. Max had also made a few off-handed remarks about Neil, and it was clear from the way that the corner of Lucas' mouth got tight that he knew more—which made sense, since they had always been close—but they'd mainly been about her mother, and how she deserved better, how she could do better that being stuck in Hawkins with a loser like Neil who liked to weild his power over people smaller than him.

And now...Billy seemed to be thinking that it was _his fault_  that Neil had used his fists against Susan.

Maybe he thought that because he had left, Neil had turned to the next person avaliable to take his anger out on, which was Susan.

But that wasn't  _Billy's fault_.

It was Neil's.

 _Not Billy's_.

"Steve?" Max's voice was soft behind him and he twisted his head back to look up at the younger girl. She took in a deep breath and moved to sit next to him, a small space between them, and she pulled at the end of her braid, which was a mess, looking like she had slept in it. "Your nails need to be repainted," she commented and Steve made a sound in his throat of agreement as he looked down at them. Billy had made a similar comment yesterday, and they were both right. Before the funeral tomorrow, he was either going to need to take all the nail polish off all or repaint them because the chipped polish was starting to look tacky. "Hey—thanks for coming out here with Billy. He wouldn't have come back if you hadn't come with me."

"You don't need to say thanks," Steve sighed. "You and Billy—you don't need to say thanks. Billy does a lot for me, and I never really know how to help him, so this is fine." Max's eyebrows pulled together as she looked at him, and it looked as though she had something else that she wanted to say, but then the door was opening again, and both Max and Steve turned around to Susan standing there, Billy a few steps behind her.

"I was going to make some tea," Susan said, her voice a little thin but determined. "Did you want tea?"

They stayed at the Hargrove residence until Max and Susan changed and left to go to the funeral home to confirm the final details with the director. Billy was still tense, his body was still wired, but he was clearly a bit more comfortable than when they had first gotten there and he was making an effort with Susan. When they left, Max hugged Billy firmly, and Billy leaned in and gave Susan a brief kiss on the cheek, on the side where the scar wasn't on her jaw, and then they left, Steve giving both of them a small smile even though usually he would probably give Max a one armed hug or something. Billy walked to the drivers side door, and Steve walked to the other side and they got in, and they didn't talk as they drove back to the Harrington home. Steve's phone vibrated as he was walking into his childhood home, and he pulled it out, to a message from Jonathan.

_**Hey, Stevie. I want to come to the funeral tomorrow. You know—as support. Do you think Billy would mind?** _

Steve wasn't sure when Jonathan had decided to come back to Hawkins, but he couldn't help but feel this huge sense of relief come over him, knowing that there was going to be someone else at the funeral who was there to support Billy. Jonathan and Billy didn't get on the best—although they got on better than Nancy and Billy did—but it was nothing like it was in high school. Jonathan and Nancy lived in Phoenix now, they'd started out in New York together, both studying there, and then Jonathan had gotten a job in Fresno for a short amount of time and they had done the long distance thing for a while, but it had been hard on them, especially since they had been together for so long and living close by each other for that  _whole time_ , so when she got the job in Phoenix, he'd quit his job and found one in Phoenix as well.

They didn't spend a lot of time in Los Angeles, but Steve was close with both of them, which a lot of people thought as odd, since Nancy and Steve had been an item for over a year in high school, and then she had left him for Jonathan, but...It was what it was. Back in school, some people—including Steve for a while—thought that Nancy had cheated on him with Jonathan, but she hadn't. Some people just gravitated toward each other naturally, and Jonathan and Nancy were good together, even if Steve hadn't wanted to admit that at first, and now they were engaged and a wedding was in their future and he was happy for them both. When he and Billy had first started hanging, he had told Nancy during one of their Skype chats and she had been disbeliving and distrustful. Then the more they hung, the more on board  _Jonathan_  got, but Nancy was still very much stuck on the fact that back in high school, Billy had broken a plate over Steve's head and permenently scarred him. Now, it was years later, and they were living together, and Nancy had seemed to accept it, but she still wasn't happy about it, while Jonathan and Billy were Facebook friends and could carry a conversation on their own when they were all together.

 _I don't think so. I'll ask him_ , Steve sent back before shoving his phone back into his pocket and glanced around, looking for Billy.

"I'm gonna have a nap," Billy was calling over his shoulder as he headed up the stairs to Steve's room and Steve wondered how much sleep Billy had gotten last night, given how hard he found it sleep through the idea, even when he was sick or hungover. Steve stared up the stairs to the second floor for a few beats before pulling out his phone again.

_Are you in Hawkins?_

**_About half an hour out_** , Jonathan replied. ** _I decided to just come anyway, even if Billy says no to me coming to the funeral._**

Steve smiled at Jonathan's last message before replying.

_Texting while driving? What would Hop say?_

**_He's still trying to figure out who El got her first joint off. You want me to rat you out?_ **

Steve couldn't help but snort when he got the text, because Hopper had gone abslolutely crazy when he had smelt weed on El and Mike's breath for the first time, when they were seventeen. Technically, he had never  _given_  them any weed, because he had been in Los Angeles at the time and far away from Hawkins where all the brats were all still at school, but they did know about the little stash that he had at the bottom of the set of drawers next to his bed. All the kids knew where the spare set of keys for his house were so that they could go over and use the pool, and he'd gotten a snapchat from El of her and Mike in his room with one of the rolled joints from his drawer and little kissing emojis.

He hadn't cared at the time, he had been younger than her when he had first smoked weed, but then he had found out how angry Hopper had been, and he had sworn the kids and Jonathan and Nancy to secrecy, never wanting to be on the wrong end of Hopper's temper.

_Fuck you._

_Anyway, come over._

_Watch movies with me._

**_Where's your lover?_ **

_He's napping. And he's not my lover._

**_You guys are fucking. He's your lover._ **

Steve rolled his eyes and didn't bother replying because he'd invited Jonathan over, so it was up to him whether he came over or not. He walked into the lounge and flopped down on the expensive couch, pushing around some of the cushions that were uncomfortable and stiff and definitely only for decoration and picked up the remote from where it was underneath the coffee table and turned on the TV. It felt weird to not be at work on a Friday, and even weirder since Billy wasn't with him and that they were in  _fucking_ _Hawkins_ , but he tried to push all of that aside and flicked through the channels to find something.  _Jeremy Kyle_  was on one of the channels so he left that on and slumped further down in the couch.

He tried not to think about Billy and Neil and Susan.

He tried not to think about what Billy went through.

He tried not to think about how hard Billy's life must have been.

He tried not to _feel selfish_ , for taking so much from Billy, lapping up all the comfort that the blonde always seemed happy to give, when it was obvious that he needed support himself.

Jonathan showed up when the episode finished, knocking awkwardly at the front door even though if he had come to their apartment he would have just let himself right in. But Jonathan and Steve hadn't exactly been close in high school, so he had never actually come to Steve's house before, even though he knew where it was. Steve just shouted out for him to come in and Jonathan appeared in the lounge a few minutes later, one eyebrow arched as he looked around.

"I mean, I knew your folks were loaded, but this place is a little crazy," he commented and Steve just waved a hand. Jonathan kicked off his shoes and came into the lounge properly, flopping down onto one of the arm chairs. "Netflix? Nancy has been watching  _Good Girls_  without me, so she's finished season two while I'm only an episode in."

"I've finished season two, but I can go again," Steve shrugged and cast Netflix from his phone and looked for the series. Jonathan was quiet for a beat before talking again.

"I never took Billy as someone who naps," he remarked.

"He doesn't...Usually," Steve muttered. "I don't think he slept much last night." Jonathan nodded, and that was it. Jonathan didn't push at things, like Nancy did, and while Steve knew that Nancy did it out of love, sometimes things didn't  _need_  to be pushed, they just needed to settle and rest. They were halfway through their third episode when Billy came back down the stairs, no longer wearing a shirt, eyes a little blurry from sleep, and he was surprised to see Jonathan in the lounge, and then Steve realized that he hadn't mentioned that Jonathan was on his way.

"Jonny Boy," Billy nodded as he collapsed on the couch and practically hauled Steve against his side. Steve didn't mind the man-handling, and he let his head rest against Billy's chest once Billy had comfortably situated him. "What are you doing here? Visiting the 'rents?" Jonathan frowned as he looked over at Steve, and Steve made a face.

"Oh, uh," he tipped his head back to look up at Billy. "Sorry, I meant to bring it up, but you headed up to go to sleep before I could. Jonathan's come back to go to the funeral with us. Okay?" It was phrased as a question, but it really wasn't one. Billy acted like he didn't need people to support him, but everyone did, and Jonathan had flown out from Fresno to show his support for Billy, just like Steve had done when he had come from Los Angeles. If Billy really didn't want Jonathan there, Steve didn't doubt he would say something, but he had a feeling it was more that he just didn't know how to ask.

"You...You came out here for the funeral? All this way?" Billy asked, his arms tightening around Steve and his voice sounding a little dry.

"Yeah," Jonathan replied, and Steve was so thankful for the way that he didn't look at Billy and act as though he didn't understand Billy's tone of disbelief. "Took Friday off work, I'll fly back Sunday morning." He looked over at them, at Billy, and gave him a small smile. "If that's all good." Billy blinked at him before clearing his throat and looking pointedly toward the TV.

"Yeah. Yeah, that's fine," he replied. "Thanks." Steve kissed Billy's collarbone and laid his head back down, focusing back on the show.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please make sure you leave a comment! They're incredibly appreciated and they help keep me writing xxx


	4. Chapter 4

Jonathan stayed for a while, the three men ordering pizza and delving into the liquor cabinet for bourbon before settling back on the couch for a mindless action flick. Billy seemed good, he didn't seem as tense as he had before, and he and Jonathan were laughing and talking and Steve was  _glad_  that Billy was letting himself loosen up. It was after eight before Jonathan left, and Steve walked him out, giving him a tight hug and thanking him for coming out.

"Yeah, it's all good," Jonathan gave Steve's shoulder a squeeze. "I mean, we Hawkins kids all gotta stick together, right?" He gave Steve a half smile, and Steve smiled back, waiting as Jonathan walked down the front steps and toward the car he had hired. It was nowhere near as nice as the one that Steve had hired, but that was because he'd hired it on the credit card his daddy paid, while Jonathan had to pay for his himself. He waited until Jonathan's car had disappeared down the driveway and turned into the street before he closed the front door and went back into the house.

He'd drunk a bit more than he had expected—he hadn't realized until he had stood up to walk Jonathan out—but Jonathan had had substantially less than both he and Billy since he knew that he was going to have to drive back to his mums after. They had piled all the rubbish into the kitchen, tidily stacked up, and he'd take care of it in the morning, but when he walked back into the lounge, Billy wasn't there. Steve looked back into the kitchen with a frown, and then was about to walk up the stairs to see if Billy had gone up to the room or maybe to the shower when he heard a splash from outside. He walked further into the kitchen and looked out the window to the pool, grinning when he saw Billy's head break back through the surface of the water, flicking his hair back deftly before pushing his body up so that he was floating on his back.

His very  _naked_  body.

Steve felt his cock reacting within seconds and he took in a deep breath, exhaling through his nose and watching as Billy floating in the water for a few moments. The outside lights were on, triggered by Billy's movements when he had walked outside, but Steve had a better idea. He grabbed their two glasses and the half-filled bottle of bourbon from the coffee table in the lounge before heading outside as well. He flipped the switch for the outside light, turning the sensor off, and then another switch, so that the underwater lights for the pool turned on. As he stepped outside, he saw them flicker on under the water and Billy noticed them as well, rolling over in the water and Steve caught a flash of his bare ass, that made his cock twitch again. There was steam rising up from the heated water and into the cool night air, little waves rippling across the surface as Billy glided through the water, over to the edge where Steve was approaching.

"I brought the bourbon," Steve announced, holding up the the bottle as he shifted the glasses to the same hand so that he could open the pool gate.

"I like how you think, princess," Billy smiled lazily up at him. Steve grinned back as the gate swung shut behind him and he reached down to put the glasses and the bourbon bottle on the concrete before straightening back up and tugging at his shirt. He could feel Billy's eyes on him as he pulled of his shirt, and then his pants and briefs, letting them pile up on the ground by his feet before slipping into the water quickly, already feeling the cool air beginning to chill his skin.

"Shit," Steve shivered as he sunk under the water, so that it was right up until his chin, covering his shoulders and instantly warming him back up again as Billy reached over to drag the glasses closer and picked up the bottle of bourbon. He poured them both a drink and then held one glass out for Steve. Steve took a sip, but Billy just threw his glass back in one shot, making the brunette raise an eyebrow, but he didn't comment on it. Billy put his glass back down and started swimming around the pool, moving down to the deep end with his arms gliding easily through the water, and Steve watched him move languidly, his cock almost completely hard now.

"Did you know that Jonathan was gonna come?" Billy asked when he got to the other end of the pool and Steve made a face.

"Way to kill my boner," he muttered as he drank from his glass again.

"Huh?" Billy arched an eyebrow at him.

"Nothing," Steve shook his head as he put his glass down and then sunk completely under the water, letting it rush around his face and dampen his hair. When he broke the surface again, he was surprised that Billy was right in front of him, blue eyes intense as he reached out through the water and wrapped an arm around Steve's waist.

"That party you had here, back when we were in school," Billy began, completely shifting the conversation as he tugged Steve in close, their chests together, and the most comfortable option for Steve was to wrap his legs around Billy's waist, floating a little in the water as he did so, before he pulled himself in close to Billy's body. "Do you remember much of that night?" Steve nodded, not saying anything because Billy was moving them gently through the water, his arms securely around Steve's waist, and with the alcohol that was sliding through their veins, the whole thing felt kind of rhythmic and soothing. "I remember thinking this place completely suited you, everything all in it's place and colours all matching and you in your bloody blue and white sweater with your uptight girlfriend." Steve couldn't help but jerk a little at that.

"You remember that sweater?" He asked, a small smile pulling at the corners of his lips. Billy laughed and leaned his forehead against Steve's, his eyes a little hazy looking, making it clear that he had  _definitely_  had more to drink that Steve.

"Fuck yeah, I remember that sweater, baby," Billy replied, his voice a low rumble. "That one, and all those polo shirts you used to wear, and there was this maroon sweater you used to wear..." Steve blinked and Billy pulled back, smirking.

"You were watching me that closely back in high school?" He asked, and it made his chest tighten and his breathing come out a little quicker. Billy's eyebrows pulled together for a moment before he was leaning forward and brushing his lips gently over Steve's, his lips tasting strongly of bourbon, nothing of the pizza that was meant to be helping mop up the alcohol.

"Baby," Billy whispered. "I was always watching you." And maybe if it was some random other person that Steve had only hooked up with a couple of times, that would scare him off, or if it was someone from high school that he had run into and had a one off fling with, but it wasn't. It was  _Billy_. And it made Steve's heart race and his stomach flip over, because even though they were close, even though Steve would consider Billy his best friend, there were some things that they just hadn't said to each other, and this was one of them.

"Billy..." Steve breathed, even though he didn't know what he was even  _trying_  to say. And it didn't matter, because Billy was leaning in and touching Steve's lips with his own and Steve was all but melting against him. The kiss was soft and gentle, nothing incessant or urgent, and Billy's fingertips were pressing into Steve's lower back and he was still gently moving them through the water and Steve's breathing caught in his throat.

"I just...I thought you were hot, but I thought you were this stuck up kid from this hick town who was nothing but a big fish in a small pond," Billy continued as their lips separated. "Fuck, I was so wrong about you, Stevie. So wrong." There was something in the way that Billy was talking that made Steve realize that Billy had had  _a lot_  to drink. He'd already realized that, but it was just starting to sink in. Billy didn't drink a lot, because from what Steve could remember he was a pretty angry drunk, and from what he had put together from the odd thing Billy had said and some of the stuff he had heard from Max, that was a lot like Neil. A lot like Neil  _had_  been. So when they went out, Billy would have a few drinks, but he would generally remain pretty sober.

Clearly not tonight.

But he didn't seem angry.

He was soft and gentle and he was looking at Steve as though he was the most precious person on the planet.

Although, Billy looked at Steve a lot with soft eyes, Steve's drunken mind supplied. And he really liked it.

"I'm glad I was wrong about you as well, baby," Steve replied gently and Billy smiled at him at the pet name, since it was usually Billy calling  _Steve_  those names. "I was so wrong about you," he murmured idly, eyes lifting to look at Billy's hair, the loose curls that weren't as long as they were in high school, but they were fuller, not as heavy and greasy as they seemed when they were in school. Steve gently ran the tips of his fingers along Billy's forehead, tracing the path of a trickle of pool water that slipped from Billy's hairline, before his fingers gently began stroking through Billy's hair, tugging at the ends and smiling as Billy tipped his head back, into Steve's touch. "You're like a cat," Steve couldn't help but grin and Billy smiled, although he didn't bother opening his eyes, just enjoying Steve's touch.

Billy kept them moving through the water, the steam rising in whispers around them, and Steve kept touching Billy's hair, the blondes eyes shut. Steve wasn't sure how much time had passed when his eyes shifted, dropping to rest on Billy's mouth, which was pink and plump and his hand moved to rest on Billy's cheek as he leaned forward to press his lips to Billy's. There was only the slightest second of hesitation from the blonde, as his eyes flickered open and he realized what was happening, and then he was returning the pressure and tightening his arms around Steve. This kiss was a bit quicker than the one from before, and Steve felt Billy's tongue touch against his lips a few times before he opened his mouth and let him in.

He didn't realize that they had been moving in just on direction rather than in slow circles anymore until his back gently came in contact with the concrete sides of the pool—in one of the corners—and Steve felt a shiver run through him at the fact that he was trapped against the sides as Billy crowded in around him. Their lips parted and Billy adjusted his grip on Steve and shifted them both so that his feet were braced against the raised sides of the pool and Steve was resting pretty much completely on his lap.

"God, I don't know what I did to deserve someone like you in my life, princess," Billy breathed as their lips came together again, and then one of his hands moved to gently scratch up and down Steve's thigh, getting closer and closer to the apex of his legs. Steve's breathing hitched as he realized where this was going, and his arms wrapped around Billy's neck, pressing himself closer, legs curling around Billy's, so that his heels were pressed against Billy's firm calves.

"Billy..." Steve mumbled, nipping at Billy's lips and jerking his hips upward as he chased after mans hand. Billy took pity on him and stopped playing around, dipping down so that his fingers could close around Steve's sac and the brunette let out a gasp, nails beginning to dig into Billy's shoulders. "Billy, please."

"Yeah?" Billy whispered, lips curving a little as he looked up from where he had been trying to stare down at them through the ripples in the water and up at Steve, and his eyes were glittering in amusement. "You desperate, baby?"

"Come on, Billy, it's been, like, a week since we got off together," Steve stuck out his lower lip in a bit of a pout and Billy obviously found it attractive because his smile grew and then he leaned forward and caught the bottom lip between his teeth, pulling at it and sucking and Steve let out a moan as Billy's hand moved and circled around his cock at the same time, fingers deft and knowing, with just the right amount of pressure to be firm and unrelenting without being painful. Or at least, not too painful, because Billy knew that Steve liked just a  _little_  bit of that. Steve's breathing quickened, and his hands shifted so that they were gripping Billy's shoulders, nails pressing into the muscle.

"Won't take you long at all, will it, baby?" Billy murmured as he released Steve's lip and then leaned forward to nuzzle into Steve's neck, and Billy sucked in another sharp breath as he felt Billy's teeth on his neck. The blondes hand didn't stop moving and Steve's hips were snapping upwards quicker and quicker the closer he got to his orgasm. "Come on, Stevie. Come for me." And that was all it took for Steve to let out a whine and come in the water between them.

Billy's fingers were still tight around him, tugging on his cock a few more times, helping him through the last few shakes of his orgasm before Steve was leaning his forehead against Billy's, his breathing ragged. Billy didn't say anything, but then he was moving Steve's weight again, pulling him forward on his thighs were further up on Billy's lap, and then Billy reached down, maneuvering them until his cock was pressing up through the tight gap between Steve's thighs, the head nudging against Steve's balls as it slid through, and Billy gritted his teeth together at the pressure.

"Fuck," he grunted out and Steve felt pleasure going through at the feeling of Billy's cock against his balls, and then pressing against his taint as he pulled his hips backwards. It wasn't going to be enough to make him come again, but his cock was twitching in interest and it definitely felt nice. Steve tried to tighten his thighs a bit, even though they were at an awkward angle, since Steve's legs naturally wanted to circle around Billy's waist, but they were kind of pressed together to provide a tight space for Billy to fuck into, knees now pulled up above Billy's hips. So he just made do, trying to thrust downward to meet Billy's upward movements.

When Billy came, the water got cloudy for a few moments, just like it had when Steve had come a few minutes before, and after his breathing wasn't so shaky anymore, Billy moved them away in the water, the come already dissipating.

They stayed in the water for another twenty minutes or so, just moving lazily through the water, not drinking anything more from the bottle of bourbon that Steve had brought out for them, and that was probably a good thing, because Steve remembered far too many nights when he had drunk in this exact pool and then just realized  _just how much_  he had drunk when he had climbed out of the pool and hit dry land. Steve floated away from Billy for a little bit, on his back, eyes looking up at the clear skies—so different from the city that they called home now—and then Billy's hand curled around his ankle and pulled him back into him after a while, bringing him in close again. Steve didn't mind, and the wide smile on his face told Billy that, as the blonde buried his face in Steve's neck.

Once they got inside, they dripped water on the carpet as they dropped their clothes and the bourbon and the glasses on the kitchen counter top and then headed to the linen closet to get towels. The smiling, loose-limbed Billy that had been the pool seemed to disappear and Steve kind of wished that they were still out there. They threw the towels in the laundry room and then went upstairs after turning off the lights and making sure the doors were locked—neither of them embarrassed by their nudity around one another—and then went up to Steve's room.

"You don't have to come to bed now," Steve said as he sat down on the edge of the bed, the sheets and blankets pushed back from Billy's earlier nap, when he hadn't straightened them out. "If you're not too tired after sleeping this afternoon."

"Nah," Billy shook his head as he flicked his fingers through his damp hair, slicking it back away from his face as he turned off the light in the bedroom and then came over to the bed. He shuffled Steve around easily, speaking to his muscular build, and Steve letting Billy, not at all minding. He was rolled over and then Billy slid in behind him, pulling the blanket up and over their bodies and then Billy pressed a kiss to Steve's shoulder. They fell quiet and Steve found Billy's arm behind him, pulling the arm over his side and linking their hands together and giving it a squeeze. Billy squeezed back, and then stretched out the fingers that were slipped between Steve's, his fingertips gently brushing Steve's stomach in a soothing manner.

"I'm sorry you have to do this tomorrow," Steve murmured after a moment. "Bury your dad. After burying your mum." The motions against Steve's stomach froze for a moment, but then they resumed and Billy just kissed his shoulder again. Billy didn't say anything and so Steve figured they didn't have much to talk about, and it had been a stressful couple of days, so sleep came easy. Billy was warm and solid behind him, and the little flutters on his stomach felt nice, and he was sinking further and further asleep.

He was  _almost_  asleep, but he still heard Billy's words as he mumbled quietly.

"I didn't bury my mum. She just left. She just gave up on me."

And Steve had no idea how to reply to that, but he suddenly felt more awake than he had in the past month, and all he could do was squeeze Billy's hand so tightly, trying to let him know that  _he_  was never going to let him go.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please let me know if you're still enjoying it ?   
> There have been hardly any comments lately , and I just wanna know if people are still feeling this series x


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Alright! Last chapter for this installment!   
> Obvi not edited yet...

Steve woke up the next morning, and he was alone again in his childhood bed. He wasn't as surprised this time, once he had adjusted to waking up back in his old bedroom for the second morning in the room, because Billy had napped through the day and then still come to bed with him at the same time the night before, but he still kind of wished that Billy had been there. They didn't sleep together very often, and he liked waking up with Billy, even if did start to feel  _familiar_  in a way that wasn't quite what they had. Steve rolled over to pick up his phone, which wasn't plugged into it's charger like he usually left it before he went to bed, but Billy's phone was right next to his, so Billy must have taken his phone off charge and used his cord when he had woken up. It was just after eight, and the funeral was at eleven that morning. Steve wasn't sure what time Billy wanted to get to the funeral home, so he figured he'd better go down and ask, so he knew how much time he had in the morning.

He pulled on a pair of briefs and rubbed a hand over his face as he left the bedroom, heading toward the stairs. First he looked out to the pool, because that was where he had found Billy yesterday, and then he glanced around the back yard and the lounge and didn't seem him there, and he was about to cup his hands around his mouth and just  _yell_  when he heard a cars engine outside. He opened the front door and saw the rental car that he had hired pulling up in front of the house and stopping, and then Billy got out.

"Uh," Steve frowned as he watched Billy walk up to the house, with a paper bag in his hand. "You good?" He wondered if maybe Billy had gone around to his fathers old house again and seen Max or Susan, although he couldn't imagine Billy putting himself in a position where he would feel that uncomfortable and not take his phone with him.

"Yeah," Billy nodded, and there was a small smile on his face. "Got you something, pretty boy," he tossed the bag at Steve, and Steve had to move quickly to grab it against his chest so as not to miss it. Billy leaned in and smacked a kiss against Steve's cheek, which made Steve smile in response as a reflex, and then he followed Billy into the house. As Steve pulls open the paper bag and looks inside, he continues to follow after Billy as he walks into the kitchen and tosses the keys on the bench.

"What time...Do we have to leave?" Steve asked as he leaned a hip against the bench and reached into the bag, a small smile spreading across his face as he took out a bottle of nail polish remove and then a small bottle of pearly-pink polish. They were both just cheap, grocery-store brands, but that was all that would be open in Hawkins this time on a Saturday. When he looked back up, Billy was watching him over his shoulder, and he turned back around to fiddle with the coffee maker when he met Steve's gaze. "Thank you, Billy," he murmured and Billy hummed in response, looking back at the coffee maker.

"I was thinking we would leave at ten-thirtyish," he said quietly as he reached up to the cupboard above him and take out a mug. "I'm not interested in being there when any family gets there, although I don't think there will be, but I don't want to leave Max for too long closer to the time. I don't know how Susan's gonna be, but I think she's gonna be...Messy." The coffee maker flicked off and Billy poured himself a mug before hesitating and reaching for another one, for Steve.

"Have you messaged her today?" Steve asked as he moved to get milk out of the fridge and then picked up the sugar tin, taking it over to where Billy was. "Is she doing okay?"

"She called me just about an hour ago. It's what woke me up—lucky my phone still had any charge," Billy muttered with a shrug. "She's fine." Steve nodded, not pushing it any further. They drank their coffee quietly, still standing in the kitchen and leaning against the counter top. Billy finished his coffee first, which made sense because he never seemed to feel the burn, and after he had rinsed out his cup, he squeezed Steve's shoulder as he left.

Steve took off the last scrapes of his nail polish while sitting on the counter top—something that he had never done as a kid, because there had been this one time when he had banged his heels too hard against the cupboards underneath, and his mother had basically screamed at him. He painted two coats of the pretty pink colour that was actually very similar to one that he had back at home, and it was a really nice one. It would go with the shirt that he had brought to wear to the funeral as well, a pale pink button down, and he was going to have to find an iron because his clothes were still folded at the bottom of his bag, which was on the floor of his room. Billy was still in the shower when Steve walked upstairs, and he went to his room to undress and get ready for his own shower. He was half-assing making the bed when Billy's phone lit up with a notification. Steve couldn't help but glance down and his eyebrows shot up in surprise.

It was an email notification, and so only the senders name and the first couple words of the subject line showed.

**Rachel Blair -** **Realtor**

**RE: Question regarding 2 bedroom apartment on...**

Steve felt as though a bucket of ice water had been dumped over his head and his whole body jerked as he stared down at the message on the phone. He know Billy's passcode, he could easily swipe his thumb over the phone and read the message, but he had never done that without Billy asking him too—unless it was to take a stupid snapchat or change the music on Spotify—and he couldn't make himself do that now.

"Stevie! I forgot a towel! Can you bring me one?!" Came a shout from the bathroom, over the sound of the shower and Steve jerked back into an upright position, pursing his lips together and clearing his throat before quickly leaving his room to go to the linen closet. Billy flicked off the shower as Steve walked into the bedroom, and he opened the glass door, standing there in all his golden, muscled glory, holding out an arm for the towel, and Steve would usually let his eyes flick down to look over Billy and maybe even strip out of his own clothes but his head felt all muddled up right now.

"Here," Steve mumbled as he passed over the towel and then quickly turned tail and left the bathroom, heading back to the bedroom just to grab the clothes that he was going to be changing into for the funeral and then disappearing into his parents room to use their en-suite.

* * *

Billy drove the car on the way to the funeral home, and he plugged his phone in and turned Machine Gun Kelly all the way up as they drove the slow streets of Hawkins. Steve had managed to calm himself down, after sending off a couple of texts to Robin Buckley, she'd pretty much just told him that he needed to take a few deep breaths and smoke a joint if he needed to, because even if Billy was thinking about moving out and he hadn't talked about it with Steve yet, it was his fathers funeral today and he needed to push aside any issues that he had. Pretty much she had just repeated back to him everything that he already knew, but it was good to hear it in a blunt tone, even over text message, from someone else. There was a reason why he and Robin were becoming closer friends, and the way that she told him shit straight was definitely one of them.

"Okay," Billy breathed heavily through his teeth as he turned off the engine of the car, and Steve lifted his eyes to look at the funeral home in front of them, and he dug his upper teeth into his lower lip.

He could literally count the amount of funerals that he had been to on one hand, and three of them had been old family members, and other than his grandma, he hadn't really known them, only met them a few times and didn't really have much of a connection with them. Another had been a girl he had gone to university with who had died in a car crash, and he'd only spoken with her a few times, but most of his class had decided to go to the funeral to show support and he had gone along as well. And the last had been Barb Holland, which had been the hardest, because they had been friendly, and then she had been  _best_  friends with Nancy, and it had been while Steve and Nancy had been together. She had been shot when she had accidentally interrupted a convenience store robbery, which had absolutely rocked Hawkins at the time. Steve hadn't really known how to process the fact that someone his age had been killed, and it had lead to a lot of drinking, which was still an unhealthy crutch that he sometimes fell into.

"You ready?" Steve asked softly, looking over at Billy and Billy made a face, scrunching up his nose momentarily before nodding his head once. Steve reached over and rested his hand on Billy's arm for a moment, waiting for him to make the first move to get out of the car, but it took a few minutes before Billy finally did. And when he did, he squeezed Steve's hand first, before taking off his seat belt and jerking the keys out of the ignition. There were only three other cars in the parking lot, and Steve recognized one of them as the one that had been parked outside Susan's house when they had gone around there yesterday. He guessed the others were workers at the funeral home.

Steve followed a few steps behind Billy into the building, and there was an older man with glasses, wearing a suit that looked as though it had been brought off the rack and not adjusted to fit him properly, even though it was obviously a couple of years old. He smiled at them wanly, obviously in charge of greetings and handing out programs.

Steve had a suit—both his parents had always had a thing about him having a suit, and so even though he never wore them, he had one in the wardrobe that he'd brought a few years ago and been tailored—and it still all fit. It was a bit tighter over his shoulders, and he was glad that the baby pink button down shirt was a newer one or else that would be a bit uncomfortably tight, but the dark grey suit still looked good. He didn't wear a tie with it, the top few buttons undone, and Billy had seemed to like it.

Billy didn't have a suit, and Steve had made a motion to just  _offer_  to buy him one—or even  _rent_  him one—and Billy had shut him down straight away when they had been in the car coming back from Susan's to the Harrington house. It wasn't like there were many places in Hawkins to buy a good suit, and they properly wouldn't have been able to get it tailored, but they would have been able to come up with something, and Billy made anything look good. He had a pair of dark coloured pants that he'd brought for a work dinner last year, and he was wearing a short sleeved blue button down shirt that he had let Steve iron for him as well, so he had tidied up well.

Not like that was going to make today any easier.

Although...Steve was pretty sure that this was just for closure rather than to mourn, which was fine and something that Steve understood in these circumstances, and if that was all Billy needed, then he was happy to just be there and be whatever Billy needed from him.

Even if he was planning on leaving him soon.

The flickering thought made Steve's stomach turn over and he actually wondered if he was going to pop one of the pills from his wallet for the second time in as many days, which was the first time in a long time he had felt the need to do so in a short amount of time, but he forced himself to take in a deep breath and then his eyes found El, standing just inside the entrance way, giving both older men a small smile, and he forced another deep breath.

"Hey," El greeted them after they'd taken a program from the older man and moved further into the building. Billy's eyes were almost manic, trying to see further into the open room of the funeral parlor, and Steve's fingers itched to reach out to touch him, but then Susan appeared and there was an older couple with her and Billy's spine suddenly seemed to snap ramrod straight, so Steve stayed where he was.

"William," the older woman nodded her head forward, giving him a small smile and Steve glanced at Billy and didn't miss the tic in his cheek.

"Grandmother," he responded quietly. Steve blinked in surprise and looked closer at the older couple. They looked like they were probably in their seventies, and they looked healthy and held themselves well, wearing well fitting clothes. Steve didn't really see any similarities between them and Steve, and he guessed maybe there was between them and Neil, but he had never really paid much attention to Neil, so he wouldn't be able to see it.

"It's good to see you, boy," the man—Billy's grandfather—said, his voice gruff, but he looked genuine enough and Steve's eyebrows twitched, pulling together as he noticed Billy clenching his hands into fists, and it was clear that he really didn't want to be there.

Obviously, Steve  _knew_  that Billy didn't want to here  _at all_ , but specifically, he gathered that he didn't want to be talking to these two people. El was looking between the couple and Susan and then at Billy, and it was clear that she could feel the tension as well, and she looked over her shoulder, maybe toward where Max was in the main room, before looking at Steve and making a subtle face, jerking her head a little.

"Did you want to head inside?" Steve tried to keep his voice light, and unable to stop himself from reaching out and touching his hand lightly to the base of of Billy's spine. Billy didn't relax, but he didn't pull away, and then he nodded and they were walking inside, El leading the way.

"There's water and juice and coffee and stuff," El said quietly as they walked in, and Steve noted that there was only two other people in the room. Max was one, and the other looked like he was another employee, in a similar, demure suit to the man who had been handing out programs at the main door. He was standing by a long table where there were cups and pitchers of water and other drinks and Billy clenched his teeth together for a moment before letting out a breath.

"I told them about what he was doing to me," he said quietly as Max walked over to him. "After my mum left, I rang them every night for as long as I could, telling them what  _he_  did to me, asking for them to let me live with them. I don't know if they didn't believe me, or if they just didn't want to believe that their son could do that, but either way, they fucking left me with him." It was Steve's turn to tense and grit his teeth as Max joined them, El's eyes narrowing as she looked over Billy's shoulder and toward where Susan was still talking with Billy's grandparents.

"If you want to go..." Steve said slowly, fingers curling into Billy's shirt instinctively. "Just say the word and we're out of here." Billy forced a small smile that didn't reach his eyes, and then he was looking over to where the drinks table was.

"I'm gonna get something to drink. You want anything?" He asked. Steve just shook his head, his arm falling back to his side as he watched Billy go. Max was wearing a dress and looking extremely uncomfortable about it, tugging at the material at her hips and making a face before fiddling her hair, which was in double braids over her shoulders.

"Where's Lucas?" Steve asked, looking around for Max's boyfriend.

"He's going to come with Jonathan and Hop and Joyce," Max replied. "El stayed over last night so that she could help us with mum and stuff this morning, but I told Lucas to come in with Jonathan and that. You know he's not the best with small talk, especially if there's more relatives that show up," her upper lip curled and she tugged at her braid again. She looked a lot like the teenager that Steve had first met when she had moved to town when she did that, and it was kind of adorable, although he would never say that her.

"Do you know if there's more relatives coming?" He asked after a pause and Max shrugged a shoulder. Her face was pale, and she looked as though she hadn't gotten much sleep the night before, so Steve didn't ask anything else, just reached out and put his hand on her shoulder, giving it a squeeze. She gave him a wan smile before heaving a sigh and then jerking her head up when Susan called out to her, waving an arm jerkily.

"I better go over," Max muttered, leaving El and Steve and quickly walking over to her mother and the older parents. El was wearing a dressy black jumpsuit, with a belt cinching the waist and her arms bare, and she looked more comfortable that El did in her dress.

"You okay?" El asked quietly and Steve forced himself to nod. It wasn't as though he really talked about his own personal shit with the kids anyway—he didn't care that they were in their twenties now, they were always going to be  _kids_  to him—and today definitely wasn't the time to start. Today had nothing to do with him, and he had to focus on  _Billy_. And Max. Although that girl seemed to be holding her own just fine, and Steve knew that El and Lucas would have her back as well.

"I think we just need to get through today," he said quietly, looking over to where the blonde man was pouring himself coffee and adding milk and sugar. "I'm glad Billy decided to come." And he  _was_. He was glad that Billy had actually listened to him, because even though this was going to be hard, Steve truly believed that it was the right thing to do.

"Did you..." El dropped her voice even more, leaning in closer to Steve. "Did you see Susan's face and arms? She's—she's got scars and stuff—from  _him_." Steve's back teeth ground together as he remembered the bruising yesterday. "I never...We never realized it was that bad, back when we were living here. Max never really said anything, other than that they sometimes got into fights." Steve felt the same sick feeling that he had felt yesterday when they had been at the Hargrove house latch onto his stomach, squeezing it, and he forced himself to take in slow, deep breaths through his nose and then let them out through his mouth.

"I knew that things weren't great, but just...We weren't friends in high school," Steve said, but the words sounded hollow, even to him. "But...I didn't even know how bad it was after we became friends. I still don't know how bad it was—" he broke off purposefully as Billy walked back over to them.

"Coffee tastes like ass," he muttered.

"The juice is okay?" El offered with a small, sympathetic smile. Billy just hummed under his breath and then looked toward the front of the room, where chairs were gathered in a semi-circle, and there was a podium where the priest or the funeral director or whoever was going to take the service was obviously going to stand, and behind it there was a coffin on a long table.

Steve couldn't believe he had missed it when they had come in.

"Did you...Want to go over?" Steve asked slowly, trying to gauge Billy's reaction, but then the curly haired mans upper lip was curling in a blatant disgust and he shook his head once. "Okay," Steve twisted his mouth, wondering what he was meant to do or  _say_ , because he wasn't good at situations like this, but then there was some noise from the doorway, obviously more people arriving, and El shifted as she tried to see into the entrance way.

"I think that's Hop and Joyce," she said. "I'm gonna go over and see them." She left without waiting for a response and Billy blinked, eyebrows pulling together.

"Hopper and Joyce are coming?" He asked slowly.

"Yeah," Steve murmured, watching Billy closely. Joyce hadn't told him that they were going to come the other day when they had been at her place, but he hadn't been surprised when Max had said that they were, not after the conversation with her. And Joyce had this habit of adopting all of the kids that came into contact with her children, and Billy had become one of them along the way. She wasn't as close to him as she was with some of them, even Steve, who she wasn't  _especially_  close to, but she always asked after him, and when she was visiting Will in the city and they all got together for a big brunch, she always gave Billy a big hug and included him in conversation.

"I didn't—" Billy's voice caught and he cleared his throat. "I didn't expect that." Steve heart broke a little because Billy  _still_  didn't seem to realize that he had people on his side.

In the end, there weren't any other family members that showed up other than Neil's parents. Steve didn't know whether there  _were_  any other close family members and they had just chosen not to come, or if there weren't anyone else, but Billy didn't seem to expect to see anyone else. Hopper, Joyce, Lucas and Jonathan were all there, standing together and talking quietly, and Steve and Billy had slowly migrated over to stand with them. El had seemed to basically glue herself to Max's side, and Max was flitting between the group with her boyfriend and checking on her mother, El moving with her. Susan was greeting each of the people that were coming in, and sometimes she would looking over at Billy and wave her hand in his direction and the people that she was speaking with would look over, and Steve knew that she was pointing him out as Neil's son, but Billy didn't make any effort to go over, and Steve couldn't fault him for that.

It wasn't as though any of these people had really known who Neil was.

And if they did, and they hadn't done anything, and were still showing up at this funeral and pretending that everything was fine? Then they were even worse than Neil was.

Seeing Carol Talmadge come through the entrance way and nervously step into the main room just before the funeral director asked everyone to begin taking their seats was a surprise. She was wearing a black dress that was a few inches above her knees and showed off her cleavage, and she was wearing bright red lipstick—so it was clear that some things never changed—but it was nice of her to come. Steve nudged Billy's side with his elbow as they began moving toward the seats and nodded over to her just as her eyes landed on them, and her eyes widened when she saw them, before giving them a tentative smile. Steve smiled back, hoping to convey his thanks, because he knew the only reason that she would be there would be out of support for Billy, which was nice, even though they hadn't had anything to do with each other in years.

Steve honestly didn't pay too much attention to the service, because it was so obvious that it was all just fake words, being read out off a script. They were sitting in the second row of seats even though Susan had initially patted a seat on her right for Billy, but he had shaken his head and firmly moved into the second row. Max and Neils parents were in the front, and then there were three empty seats in the front row, which seemed kind of fitting, showing that he really didn't have that many close friends.

Hopper, Joyce, Lucas, El and Jonathan were in the seats behind them, Joyce directly behind Billy, and she had her hand resting on his shoulder through the entire service. Steve had seen the way Billy had tensed up to begin with, but then he had reached back and squeezed her hand before letting it fall back to his lap.

Susan said a few words, nothing too long, but all the nice things that she said all sounded so fake. Then both of his parents spoke, and they only kept things short as well, mainly mentioning Neil as a child and that they wish they had made more of an effort to visit when he had moved out to Hawkins. Billy reached out for Steve's hand then, gripping his fingers tightly at that, and Steve wasn't sure what it meant or what the words were in direct reaction to, but he let Billy hold onto his hand as hard as he needed, even though it felt as though he was crushing all of the bones.

Then the funeral director spoke again, asking if anyone else wanted to say anything, and Steve could feel eyes shifting, resting on Billy, given he was Neils son, but Billy didn't move an inch. Steve tightened his grip around Billy's hand, trying to show support, even though there wasn't much he could do. A boss of Neils got up and took the floor, just spinning some standard tale about Neil being a stand up man at work who had barely missed a day and would be missed, and then the room fell completely quiet. No one else came forward to say anything, and after a few silent moments passed before the director stepped forward, obviously deciding to move on with the service.

The service ended with a prayer, and then people were encouraged to move to the back of the room where refreshments would be set up.

Billy slipped outside right away and Steve hung back, not wanting to crowd Billy, and he checked his phone and had a couple of messages. There was one from both Will and Mike, saying to pass on their sympathies to Billy, and one from Dustin, saying to pass on a kiss, since he knew Steve had no issues with that when it came to Billy. The last one was from Robin.

_**Hope everything's going okay, doofus. Ring me if you need to x** _

Steve couldn't help but smile a little at the message before looking up as Jonathan came over to stand next to him.

"Billy doing okay?" Jonathan murmured and Steve shrugged a shoulder.

"As well as can be, I guess?" Steve replied quietly, letting out a heavy breath through his nose. "The guy was an absolute asshole to him.  _Worse_. He was—he was meant to be his father, he was meant to protect him and he..." Steve gritted his teeth together and Jonathan put his arm around Steve's shoulders, giving him a half hug.

When the coffin was taken out to the hearse, there weren't enough family members and close friends to help carry it out. They needed six people, and Neils father, two people from his work and Susan were all pallbearers, although Susan obviously couldn't handle too much of the weight given her frail stature. Steve was a bit confused as to why they hadn't sorted all of this out before the funeral, but maybe it was just assumed that Billy and Max would both be helping, even though Max was resolutely standing between El and Lucas and Billy had his arms crossed firmly over his chest. It wasn't until Hopper moved forward and nodded his head and Billy that there was any movement.

"Come on, son," he said in his rough voice, moving to the coffin, and even though Steve knew that it was taking every ounce of strength that Billy could muster, he was then moving to stand on the opposite side of the coffin from Hopper.

Steve was stupidly proud of him.

There hadn't been many people at the funeral to begin with, and even less went to the cemetery. Once the coffin had been brought to the hole in the ground, Billy was moving away quickly, to stand with Billy, near the back of the small group of people. Carol had also come, and she moved to stand next to Steve, giving him a small smile.

"Hey," Steve whispered.

"Hi," she replied, and it was weird, because, yeah, they hadn't seen each other in years, but they had been friends for so long in high school, even if things had ended on a bitter note, and Carol obviously thought the same thing, because when he turned to look at her, she was already leaning in for a hug. "It's been  _forever_ ," she murmured as Steve squeezed her. When they parted, Steve stepped back so that Billy was included in their little bubble and her eyes flicked between them. "I always told Tommy that it was more than just some dumb rivalry between the two of you, I  _knew_  I felt some sexual tension happening," there was a smirk pulling at the corners of her lips. "When I saw you guys get tagged in a photo together on Instagram a couple of years ago I was actually pretty happy about it." Steve didn't think now was the time to get into the fact that they weren't together years ago—even now they weren't a  _couple_ —so he just smiled. "Anyway," Carol's voice turned somber as she looked toward Billy. "I just—I heard about your dad, and we were kind of friends in high school, and I just wanted to come and pay my respects."

"Thanks, Carol," Billy gave her a smile, a more genuine one than he had given his grandparents or any of his fathers colleagues that day. They all fell quiet again as the coffin began getting lowered into the ground, and people began moving forward to toss handfuls of dirt into the grave. Family was all meant to go first, which would be Billy, but he didn't budge and it moved onto colleagues and acquaintances.

Billy stayed at Steve's side, and Steve didn't move forward to throw any dirt into the grave, even as Carol did, and Jonathan and Hopper and Joyce did. People began moving away, back to their cars, and eventually, Billy took in a breath through his nose and looked at Steve.

"I want to go home," he whispered, leaning his weight against Steve's side. Steve wrapped an arm around him and slowly lead him back to their rental car.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please, please leave a comment and let me know what you think!   
> I've already started on the next one, I'm thinking a little daddy kink and a little angsty Steve if everything goes according to plan and nothing get away from me...
> 
> Tumblr: SereneCalamity  
> Twitter: CalamitySerene

**Author's Note:**

> So...Also letting you know that I've written two parts for another series I'm gonna start at some point. Not the singer one, although that will obviously happen, it's a college/university AU one. I'm really not making the AU-wheel here. Lol. I just really want Billy to fall in love with shy Steve while Steve is wearing a fluffy pink sweater and his nails are painted pretty blue, okay?! So it's happening! I want to write a few more parts and get further along with this one, though, before I post it.  
> Anyway, did you guys enjoy? Comment and let me know?  
> Twitter: CalamitySerene  
> Tumblr: SereneCalamity


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